I’m no stranger to joke-writing. I’ve been at it for over a decade—writing for McSweeney’s, The Second City, The God Pod, and working with Scott Dikkers, former editor-in-chief of The Onion. (If you’re a comedian, I highly recommend his Substack—links below.)
But writing jokes and telling them in front of people are two very different beasts. If joke writing is meticulously designing an aircraft, standup is jumping out of it with no parachute, buck-naked, while everyone rates your body.
I don’t know what the hell I’m doing most of the time. All I know is that I want to do it. I left my job last summer after saving enough money to live off for two years—just enough time to see if I could actually build a life around comedy, instead of just orbiting it from the safety of a paycheck.
On any given day I’m some combination of scared, hopeful, and exhausted. But above all, I’m grateful—Grateful to you for reading, for caring, and for tagging along on this ridiculous adventure. Thank you. I really don’t know where this is going to take me, but because of you, I don’t have to figure it out alone.
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"If joke writing is meticulously designing an aircraft, standup is jumping out of it with no parachute, buck-naked, while everyone rates your body." That is such a great way of putting it, David!!!!